Tourism body to select channels for new publicity programs

The executive committee of the National Tourism Action Program will select international television channels this week to promote the culture and tourism image of the country worldwide, an official said.

Nguyen Van Tinh, Director of the International Cooperation Bureau under the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, said that his bureau would submit plans to make publicity programs on international television channels like CNN, BBC, StarSports and Discovery to the committee. The bureau was planning another program to make similar programs on international magazines, especially those specializing in culture and tourism.

“I think that the committee will choose only one channel due to the high cost. In this year, our bureau is focusing on programs on international magazines because of lower prices than on television channels,” he said.

According to Tinh, after the publicity program on CNN channel in 2007, the bureau has made one more program on the channel last year along with the program on London-based BBC channel and some international magazines.

“We want to continue on CNN and BBC but the advertising prices are higher than last year,” Tinh said.

The bureau has received discounts of around 30 to 40% for programs on CNN and BBC last year. Such channels have quoted prices of more than US$300,000 for each similar program this year.

“We will have a budget of around VND15 billion for all activities in this year so we are giving priority to budget publicity programs like inviting representatives of foreign media to the country (for familiarization trips),” Tinh said.

Of the guests, a group from Channel 4 of the Chinese CCTV channel has visited the country, and a film about Vietnam’s culture and tourism is to be broadcasted on the channel on September 2.

Along with the bureau, the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) is also carrying activities to promote the culture and tourism image worldwide.

According to Tinh, his bureau is organizing culture and tourism festivals in foreign countries like the festivals in South Korea and Japan this month, while VNAT is focusing on specific programs for the tourism sector like tourism road shows, and participation in tourism fairs abroad.

VNAT has reported that nearly 351,000 international visitors visited the country last month, bringing the total number of such visitors during January-May to more than 2.1 million, up 32.2% year-on-year.